Abstract

Understanding parents’ perceptions of their young children’s viewing behaviors and environments is critical to the development of effective television reduction interventions. To explore parents’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences regarding their children’s television viewing and the use of televisions in their children’s bedrooms, we conducted focus groups with 74 racial/ethnic minority parents of children aged birth to 5 years. We analyzed transcripts of the focus group discussions using immersion-crystallization. Over 50 % of parents reported that their children watch more than 2 h of television per day and 64 % reported that their children have a television in their bedrooms. In general, parents were unconcerned about the amount of television their children watched. However, parents did express concern about the content of their children’s viewing. Discussion of potential harmful effects of television viewing focused mainly on the impact television viewing may have on children’s behavior and academic outcomes and only rarely on a concern about weight. Most parents were unaware of adverse consequences associated with children having a television in their bedroom and many reported that having a television in their child’s bedroom helped keep their child occupied. To effectively engage parents of young children, television reduction interventions should include messages that address parents’ key concerns regarding their children’s viewing and should provide parents with alternative activities to keep children occupied.

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